o-night if I hadn't met you.'

"He lay on the settee a long while, smoking and looking angrily at the
books in the case.

"'Mind,' I said, 'this is on condition that in Genoa you clear out and
leave me in peace. It's on condition you sign on under an assumed name.
I've a position here. If it was known--you understand. I'm the chief
engineer and it might cause trouble.'

"'Charley,' he says at last, 'you're a good chap and I'm a rotter. I'm a
bad egg, a rolling stone, flotsam, garbage, punk, anything you like that
smells to heaven. I hate myself sometimes. It's hate of myself that
makes me desperate. But, give me this chance. Perhaps a sea-voyage will
brace me up. Genoa, you say? They speak French there, don't they?'

"'No,' I said, 'they speak Genoese.' I couldn't help being a little
sarcastic about that. 'But you'll find they speak English at Cook's
office.'

"He looked at me for a while, his big eyes blinking through the smoke.
He was thinking, I suppose. There's no doubt he has a remarkably active
mind. I could feel he was taking in the situation. Suddenly he put his
arms up and stretched, his feet crushing against the end of the settee.

"'Charley, my boy,' says he, 'I'll winter in Italy, that's what I'll do.
It'll be a change after Rosario,' he says.

"'You can do as you please,' I told him, 'when you're paid off.' 'Until
then, you'll have to do what the Second Engineer tells you. Understand?'

"'Oh, yes, Charley, I'll be as humble as dirt,' he says.

"Well, he was. I sent him ashore with a few Argentine dollars to get a
bed for the night, and the next morning he comes down to the ship, as
meek as milk, and asks the Second for a job. I'd told the Second about
him, saying he's been recommended to me by people ashore and so on. I
can't say I was very sanguine about the experiment. About the time in
port I mean. At sea I had no fears. I knew that the discipline of the
sea would be more than a match for any brother of mine.

"I began to wonder, as the days went on, what had become of the man who
had sprung up and nearly strangled me that night. It almost seemed as
though there was some mistake, as though my brother had vanished into
the night and some other beach comber, with a big nose and dark eyes,
had applied for the job. Never by any sign did he let on that he had
seen me before. When I took him to the cabin for the Skipper to sign him
on he gave the name of Frank Freshwater, without batting an eyelid yo